Technical Field
The present disclosure generally relates to computing systems and methods, and in particular to systems and methods that facilitate the detection of suspected fraudulent user profiles in computing systems and networks.
Description of the Related Art
The term “Web 2.0” has been used to describe Web sites providing information and entertainment to users in a non-static format. In particular Web 2.0 has often been used to describe content delivered using a person-to-person or person-to-group environment such as those found on social networking sites, blogs, wikis, folksonomies, and video sharing sites. In many instances, users of such sites may provide personal or other information either as part of a site registration process, or in dialog with other site users. In many instances, such information is used to facilitate linking between site user who may share similar interests, personalities, or profiles. In some instances, users who are “matched” or otherwise introduced to each other by the Website may exchange additional information either as a “private” or similar connection between users through the Website itself or external to the Website, for example via direct or screened email exchanges between users. Users may exchange information through relationships developed with Website users, including information of a personal nature such as photographs, financial information, family information, and the like either through the Website or external to the Website (e.g., via email).
While many users are scrupulous in their dealings with other users in such environments, on occasion less scrupulous users may also participate in an attempt to extract information of a personal nature from unwary users. Among other things, such information may be used to commit identity theft, blackmail, fraud, phishing, misdirection, click fraud, or for other nefarious purposes. For example, in some instances, a scammer may generate a number of false or shadow profiles to interact with other users and, on occasion extract personal information from those users. At times, tens, hundreds, or even thousands of false or shadow users may be generated through the use of a software routine that repeatedly connects to a Website and creates a user profile. In some instances, a plurality of computers may be infected with malware and operated covertly as “bots” in a bot network. For example, a plurality of computers operating as bots may be autonomously or manually controlled or caused to generate fraudulent user profiles. The computers or bots typically use a random or semi-random mixture of registration data retrieved from a defined set of user registration data selected by the scammer. Over time, left unchecked such bots can create tens, hundreds, or even thousands of false or shadow user profiles. For example, a scammer may determine that middle age men are more susceptible to exchanging information with 25-35 year old females. With such information, the scammer can create a bot to generate user profiles representative of typical 25-35 year old women. Once an unwary user begins communicating with one of the shadow users, the scammer can direct the information exchange between the shadow user and the valid site user to extract desired information from the valid site user.